DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-140, September 12, 2004 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2004 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1245: Sun 2000 on RFPI http://www.rfpi.org repeated 8-hourly [maybe] Mon 0100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0230 on WRMI 6870 Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [previous 1244] Mon 0430 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Mon 0900 on R. Lavalamp http://www.radiolavalamp.org Mon 1600 on WBCQ after-hours http://wbcq.com repeated weekdaily Mon 2100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB [maybe, repeated Tue, Wed] Wed 0930 on WWCR 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: WORLD OF RADIO 1245 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1245h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1245h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1245.html WORLD OF RADIO 1245 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1245.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1245.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1245 in the true SW sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_09-08-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_09-08-04.mp3 [this week WBCQ got a download instead of phone feed, better quality] ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. UAE, 11795, Salaam Watadar (Presumed), 0240 Sep 12 with talk by women on DXTuner Europe. Then a drama with a man talking excitedly (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ANGUILLA. Caribbean Beacon, a.k.a. University Network, a.k.a. Dr. Gene Scott, noted on wrong frequency at 0200 UT Sept 12, 11775 --- that`s the daytime channel, and nothing on the nighttime channel 6090. Guess they forgot to, or were unable to switch to 6090. Trouble is, Radio Martí runs 11775 at night, and the two were mixing at about equal level. Separation about 2 Hz, judging from the subaudible heterodyne. Surely CB is not authorized for 11775 at this time, and if they can`t be on 6090, need to go off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If you`d like to DX something besides Anguilla on 6090, tonight`s the night. Caribbean Beacon is off, and at 0200 they were still running their day frequency 11775 instead, despite being only 2 Hz from Radio Martí. Glenn, 0442 UT Sept 12 (dxldyg via DXLD) Glenn, I am hearing Country and Western music as well as other types of music on 6090 at this time (0942 UTC), but it is very weak compared to usually. I did a quick check earlier and it was a stronger signal there then, so....? (Chuck Bolland, FL, Sept 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non] If this happen again, you might look for: COLOMBIA --- R. Macarena on new 6090.35 as in 4-133; NIGERIA --- 6089.9, R Nigeria, Kaduna, 2213-2224, Aug 21, Vernacular talks and songs; 53432, adjacent QRM and co-channel QRM from The Caribbean Beacon in English [and should be on in the local mornings too] (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) But don`t imagine you hear VLI6 Sydney. However, at 2319 check Sept 12, CB 6090 was back and nothing on 11775; usual switchover time is 2200, I believe (gh, DXLD) ** ANTIGUA & BARBUDA. PRO-GOVERNMENT CRUSADER RADIO AVAILABLE LIVE ONLINE BBC Monitoring observes Crusader Radio, which is owned by Antigua & Barbuda's ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) and private shareholders, online with a live audio stream from the radio's web site at http://www.crusaderradio.com. The main aim of Crusader Radio, according to a statement on the web site, is to promote the programmes and policies of the UPP. The "Voice of Liberation", as a slogan on the web site refers to the radio, broadcasts on 107.5 MHz FM from studios in the capital, St. John's. The radio began broadcasting on 18 August 2003, when the station's main shareholders the UPP was in opposition in the former British colony's House of Representatives. The web site continues to describe the party as the "official opposition", although the UPP was actually elected to power in March 2004. The UPP has a web site at http://www.uppantigua.ag whilst the Government web site is at http://ab.gov.ag Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 11 Sep 04 (via DXLD) ** BAHAMAS. When I was in graduate school at the University of Miami a couple hundred years ago, and living in a mobile home, I recall following one of the approaching hurricanes via ZNS. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported the storm had turned north in the Bahamas, ZNS, reported it was moving north. NHC said it was moving north; ZNS coordinates from hams in the islands said it was stalled. NHC said it was moving north; ZNS coordinates had it moving south. NHC said it was moving north; ZNS coordinates showed it moving west. Several hours later NHC said it's moving west, get the hell out of Dodge - er Dade. Sure glad I was listening to ZNS (Dan Ferguson in Dxplorer, Sep 05, via DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4845.03, Radio Municipal, Caranavi, Departamento de La Paz, New station!!!!! Thanks DXer Björn Malm for the tip!!! 0912-0935, September 11, Aymara!!! Altiplano music non stop from 0912 UT. At 0922 identification by male "...Radio Municipal...comunitaria Caranavi..."; other ID as: "...Radio Municipal...onda corta, 4845 kilociclos amplitud modulada... FM... Radio Municipal, Bolivia". After, more local music, 43433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, PlayDX via DXLD) Re 4845: Today as I listened before 10 UT, that station was there, but at 1000, a Brazilian signed on. It was very loud. BTW, I heard that Radio Municipal ID the other morning, but I thought it might be part of the Fides ID. I searched DXLD for other IDs for Radio Fides to see if they had anything like that in their older slogans; couldn't find anything. What convinced me that that was Radio Fides, was the parallel on 9625 that I heard. Sorry for the confusion (Chuck Bolland, FL, Sept 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4845, R. Municipal, Caranavi, 0924 Many IDs by M. Sounded like he mentioned being heard in Peru and Brazil, gave frequency as 4845 kcs again. Into band music at 0925. Would be nice if not for the ute. ZY was on top at 0957 check 11 Sept. (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4845.06, R. Municipal, 0906 already on with music 12 Sept. (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, Beverage of 300' at 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4796.37, R. Mallku, 1005 12 Sept., canned ID by M with frequency and all sorts of animal SFX in the background, roosters most prominent. Another beautiful canned ID at 1007. 1007-1011 nice local CP flute music with guitar in background and occasional group vocals. Long period of dead air at 1012-1019. Haunting CP vocal song 1019- 1022. Another canned ID at 1022, possibly the same as played at 1007 but it had faded too much by this time. Long live talk by studio M host with flute music in background at 1023-1029. W at 1030 barely noticeable followed by possible canned announcements. Nice fairly strong signal at tune-in with sweeper nonexistent, and slight QRN. But as it was fading, the sweeper got stronger. Strongest and clearest signal I've ever had from this one!! (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, ANT: Beverage of 300' at 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 5952.49, R. Pio Doce, 0003 12 Sept; Quick R. Pio Doce ID at 0004; seemingly pop-style vocals mixed with alternating OM & YL announcements; difficult copy due to splatter from CRI via Sackville on 5960 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, 41.64N 93.66, R8B, R7, HF- 2050, 6790/GM, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4985, R. Brasil Central, Goiânia, GO,*0700, Aug 29 and 31. However on Aug 30 heard 0520- past 0730 with presumed 24 hour schedule. Also heard here night time and this station continues to be the most consistent Brazilian on the tropical band (Patrick Cody, Nenagh, Ireland, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. 7230, R. Burkina, Ouagadougou, Aug 23, 1330, French talks, 25342. This is another African station I usually try mornings, and like Guinea, it is sometimes audible till quite late without any QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** CANADA. CKZU/CKZN, 0804 11 Sept., Both stations here with CBC news. Oddly, CKZN was slightly behind CKZU by about 1/5 of a second. Think it should be the other way around. CKZN strong and good audio, CKZU had distorted audio when it switched to own programing (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) That could be explained: CKZU gets CBC news from Toronto (presumably) via one satellite hop, while CKZN takes an extra hop or two, e.g. to Labrador and back (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA [non]. 13810.0, Voice of Light/BibleVoice Broadcasting (via Jülich, Germany), 1705-1730*, Fri Aug 27, (the Voice of the Martyrs and High Adventure Gospel Communication Ministries shortwave radio program into Eritrea). Fundamental Christian programming seemingly in Arabic programme. Giving ID as 'The Voice of Light' with Toronto address. At end of program English ID as ``You have been listening to Bible Voice Broadcasting. You can reach us by mail by writing to Bible Voice Broadcasting, P. O. Box 220, Leeds, LS26 0WW in the United Kingdom, or you can e-mail us at mail@bliblevoice.org Thank you for listening and may God .." Fair (Finn Krone, Aversi, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) Have often filed this under UK [non] ** CAYMAN ISLANDS [and non]. Havana Radio warns the nation --- By MARTIN MERZER, JANE WOOLDRIDGE AND ALFONSO CHARDY The Miami Herald Reports of severe damage emerged from the Cayman Islands this afternoon as Hurricane Ivan, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, swept through those tiny dots of land and thundered closer to Cuba, where black clouds covered Havana. . . http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/9641973.htm?1c (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Little about radio, but a good wrapup of the situation at the moment (gh) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC [non]. UNITED KINGDOM, 15470, R. Ndeke Luka, 1831 Sep 12, upbeat music, and ID and frequency by woman in French (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. This concerns the closure of a community radio station in Cauca, Radio Nasa --- nothing spatial, apparently, but the name of an indigenous group; WTFK? Surely not SW (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MINISTERIO ORDENA CIERRE DE RADIO NASA Enviado el Thursday, 02 September a las 22:04:38 por monica http://www.sipaz.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=491 La primera radio indígena del norte del Cauca fue cerrada por orden del Ministerio de Comunicaciones de Colombia. Así lo hacía saber un comunicado de la regional del Valle del Cauca. En horas de la mañana y ante el asombro de los productores y oyentes, la policía y la alcaldía procedieron con el operativo de decomiso de los equipos. Ahora con su cierre, se convertirá en un centro de producción radial para Radio Payumat, mientras se adelanta la gestión para su reapertura. Toribío, septiembre de 2004. Sipaz/Nodo Cauca. Por: Mauricio Dorado Radio Nasa nació en Toribío en 1996, apoyada por los cabildos indígenas y el equipo misionero de la iglesia católica en la región. Desde entonces, se convirtió en la herramienta fundamental para la comunicación interna de la comunidad y para el fortalecimiento del plan de vida. Toribío está ubicado al norte del Cauca, sur de Colombia, y ha sido reconocido mundialmente por los premios que ha merecido su proceso comunitario: el premio Planeta Azul, el premio Ecuatorial 2004, mejor experiencia ambiental en todo el planeta, reconocido por la UNESCO como un laboratorio social, ganador del Premio por la Paz, en Colombia, y el premio al mejor plan de desarrollo a nivel nacional. Se desconoce el motivo final de su cierre pues aunque no contaba con licencia pues desde un principio los cabildos hicieron las gestiones correspondientes para la consecución de la misma, finalmente no se pudo lograr por los procedimientos establecidos por el Ministerio para emisoras comunitarias. Sin embargo, algunos de sus funcionarios manifestaron verbalmente que podían continuar trabajando normalmente mientras se presentaban los espacios correspondientes para estos medios de comunicación de origen indígena y comunitario. En el cruce de comunicaciones, el Ministerio manifestó, desde 1997, que estaba próxima una nueva licitación para emisoras comunitarias lo cual no ha ocurrido hasta el momento. "Nuestra emisora es legítima porque cuenta con el apoyo de la comunidad y los cabildos y la programación es cien por ciento comunitaria", dijo uno de los integrantes de Radio Nasa. Con el cierre de Radio Nasa el norte del Cauca pierde un medio importante para la comunicación en la región. Pero, como dice Diego Dagua de Radio Payumat, emisora matriz del territorio nortecaucano: "Radio Nasa se seguirá escuchando porque en nuestra emisora están abiertas las puertas para sus comunicadores y su programación". El cierre de Radio Nasa se da en un contexto de guerra escalada en esta región del país, de la desaparición de cinco líderes de este municipio, incluido su alcalde indígena Arquimedes Vitonás, y la próxima movilización indígena y popular que se llevará a cabo este 12 de septiembre próximo (Sistema de Comunicación para la Paz, via Horacio Nigro, Conexión Digital Sept 10 via DXLD) ** CUBA. Re Glenn's piece concerning Martí & RHC: 7405 and 9805 (this one listed via Delano) were well heard with no jamming at 0720 tune in today Sept. 12. Unfortunately, I didn't tune to 11775 before 0700, but noted that WUN via AIA was at good strength on that frequency at 0720. Rebelde was still active this morning on 5025 at fair strength around 0720 and WUN via CTR on about 5029 // 6150 7375 & 11775. At 0640 tune in I found a poor signal on 11760 peaking to audible in severe splash from a strong Pori transmission on 11755, and some from BBC via MEY on 11765 when using USB. Some English words were heard, but the transmission could not be copied. It went off around 0700. I am not certain that this came from RHC - nothing was heard of the three 9 MHz outlets same time. Caution is now required as I find NHK via YAM to be faintly audible on 11715 with their 0600-0700 English transmission to FE / Russia, and the parallel channel is 11760. 73s from (Noel R. Green [NE England], Sept 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Good strength signal from Radio Havana, Cuba in English early this morning on 6000 kHz from 0330 UT tune-in until 0500 sign-off just on my Sony 7600 GR with its telescopic. Included at 0330 was "a special Ivan edition" of Arnie Coro's "DXers Unlimited", as Cuba braces itself for Hurricane Ivan to hit the west of the island Sunday night / Monday morning. Cuba is still recovering from Hurricane Charley which hit the island on 13th August causing $1 billion of damage and caused R Havana Cuba and relays from Cuba (R Nac Venezuela, CRI) to be off air for a air for a couple of weeks following antenna damage. Arnie mentioned the amateur radio hurricane net on 14325 kHz usb voice which is active when a hurricane is close to land. [Arnie didn`t actually mention China or Venezuela relays, did he? If so, that would be a first – gh] [Nominal] English schedule of RHC still(?) 0100-0500 on 6000 & 9820; 0500-0700 on 9550 9655 9820 & 11760; 2030-2130 on 9550 (or 9505?) & 11760; 2300-0000 on 9550 (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, Sony 7600 GR / telescopic, Sept 12, BDXC-UK via DXLD) RHC was also back on 11760 in English, Sat Sept 11 at 2113 check, but no DXers Unlimited as normally scheduled! Economic report instead, then a couple pieces of music including ``Guantanamera``, and by 2121 into RHC IS over and over. Appears the studio was not prepared to resume transmission and they just threw something together. Good signal and modulation. ``Guantanamera`` is a great piece of music, but it seems RHC plays it too often at the expense of other Cuban tunes. Tho missing the day before, Venezuela relay was also back Sept 11 on 13740 when checked at 1914. I should have checked 11760 at 2300 in case the Venezuela relay was back then, as 11760 again noted with RHC English at 0519 check, announcing three wrong frequencies, but not this one! --- 6000, 9820, and 11705-SSB. Now how many years has it been that RHC has not been using SSB? They are incredibly out of touch with their own station at the studios. Lucked into hearing Arnie Coro for the first time in a month, at the unexpected time of 0522 UT Sunday, DXers Unlimited by phone from CO2KK at home where he was busy with Hurricane Net activities on 14325-USB, naturally plugging the rôle of ham radio as always and saying nothing about RHC`s own problems, one of which was that he was rudely cut off at 0530 in mid-sentence just after mentioning that it was an abbreviated edition of DXUL (but not that abbr`d!), so that 0530 RHC could ``start its second hour`` with news, as if it were the top of the hour. Their clox must be way off, or they got a late start with this transmission and victimize Arnie and his listeners as a result. Mentioned E-mail address of radiohc@enet.cu --- is that a new one? 11760 was still tuned when I next checked at 1340, during En Contacto, the Spanish DX program whose first few minutes were missed. Among other things, they mentioned a new FM station to ``fill in a zone of silence``, Radio Chambas (spelling?), 250 watts, 20 km range on 90.7, but I did not catch the location. See also VENEZUELA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CAYMAN ISLANDS [and non] (via DXTuner FL) Checking for R. Havana at 1140 Sep 12, the only channel I could hear was 6000. Listed 9550, 11760, 12000, and 15230 were all untraced. I could also hear Rebelde on 5025 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) As I mentioned in an earlier DXLD: RHC does *not* own or operate any transmitters, the station depends fully on the abilities of the transmitter operator Radiocuba. All transmitters in Cuba are maintained by the Ministry of Information and Communication, since 1996 by a subsidiary called Radiocuba (while RHC, as known, is produced under the roof of Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisón, subordinated to the Ministry of Culture). Apparently, this operator Radiocuba is trying its best to improvise and to provide RHC with transmitter capacities after the recent hurricane damages, but since Radiocuba and RHC are two different structures, the communication between both seems not always to work properly, hence the wrong frequency announcement or technical failures (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, dxldyg via DXLD) Understood, but that`s still no excuse. Anyhow, they all work for the same despot. That reminds me, I haven`t tagged this lately: ``Cuba --- último territorio esclavo en América. Patria o suerte, ¡pensaremos! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. Ola, Right, Don Fido, Rebelde, 1180, 590 on Manasoviet Key, 9:15 PM EDT, SAT. News footage suggests he's auditioning, over-the-top, for as yet unannounced reality show. 14,325 USB Huracan Centro Nacional, US Imperiali'ta operators heard throughout afternoon today speaking with 'Arnie'. 5025 strong w/Rebelde, big power, fast sig fluctuation, Maximo Leider speaking. And speaking. And speaking, u.s.w. Weather volk prophesy we may dodge another bullet on Manasoviet Key. Those with fond Cold War remembrances know that Ivan always bore watching. Best, (PV Zecchino, FL, Sept 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) "Should the entire world turn against it, as for me, Socialismo forever!" - F. Castro-Ruz [Z`s tagline] ** CUBA [non]. The U.S. has intensified radio propaganda transmissions to Cuba. An EC-130 "Commando Solo" aircraft of the 193rd Special Operations Wing (SOW) has been used to broadcast Radio Martí programs on 530 kHz mediumwave with a power of 10 kW. Radio Martí announced the use of the new frequency on August 21 on a test basis, and the State Department confirmed the use of a new platform on August 23. Based on monitoring by DXers in the area, the plane is presumably used only one day a week on Saturdays, flying near the Florida Keys in the U.S. airspace. Cuba has responded by broadcasting its own Radio Rebelde programming on the same frequency, although it is suffering from blackouts since Hurricane Charley battered the country on August 13. The same Commando Solo aircraft is used to transmit TV Martí programs on Channel 13. In May 2004 the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (see DXing.info Community for details) recommended that such broadcasts be carried out on a regular basis to break the Castro regime's information blockade on the Cuban people. Officials have not revealed the exact type of the aircraft used in Florida, but the 193rd Special Operations Wing is in the process of replacing its aged EC-130E models with EC-130Js. Jay Ostrich, chief of public affairs at 193rd SOW tells DXing.info that officially the three first EC-130J planes are to be commissioned on September 10, 2004, and a fourth one is expected to enter service by the end of 2004. Eventually all six planes of the 193rd Special Operations Wing will be replaced. The J model has more powerful engines, a higher cruising speed and altitude, as well as a longer range. The J models can fly 2,300 nautical miles unrefueled, while the range of E is 1,500 miles. Broadcasting equipment remains essentially the same. Commando Solo was tested as a platform for Cuba broadcasts already in May 2003 (see DXing.info news in June 2003). (DXing.info, August 30, 2004 via DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. CLANDESTINE from USA to CUBA, 6030, R Martí in the clear, wow! 7365, 13820, 15330 all the same. No trace of 530 kHz from the aircraft, though Sep 11 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. RFE/RL LEAVE CENTRE OF CZECH CAPITAL WITHIN TWO YEARS - MINISTER | Excerpt from report in English by Czech news agency CTK Prague, 12 September: The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) station will be provided with new headquarters within two years and it will move from the centre of Prague, Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in a televised debate today. The location of the RFE/RL in the former Federal Assembly building near Wenceslas Square has been viewed as a security risk for several years. The Prague-based RFE/RL, which broadcasts in many languages to countries without free media, has been financed by the USA. Negotiations with the USA are near to an end and the USA has pledged to build new RFE/RL headquarters within two years, said Sobotka. The Czechs and the Americans have discussed the transfer of the station for several years now because of their fear of a terrorist attack on it. For some time, the RFE/RL seat was guarded by armoured carriers. The RFE/RL does not pay any rent for the former federal parliament building, but finances its maintenance which costs about 54m crowns a year. The RFE/RL's office lease contract expires this December. [Passage omitted] Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1421 gmt 12 Sep 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** DENMARK. 09/11/04, 0145z, 5815, WMR World Music Radio, SIO 343, R8A. Some good easy listening music and voice IDs. Couldn't hear it on the NC-125 because of good ole WEWN [5825] and their usual splatter. I can hear them without antennas. I have WMLK in Bethel and WINB in Red Lion within 30 air miles of my QTH. I have never had a problem with them like WEWN; oh well, watcha gonna do (Chuck Sayers, Harrisburg PA, WA3GSI, swl at qth.net via DXLD) World Music Radio. 5815, 0550 Sept 12, "Captain of your Heart" by Double then onto "When you`re in love with a beautiful woman" by Dr Hook at 0559, then at 0620 ELO with "Last train to London", music much more intelligible than talk which seemed to mention their web site (David Norrie, AOR 7030, Fence post antenna, Whitford Forest, Auckland, New Zealand, DX LISTENING DITEST) 5815, WMR, 0042 11 Sept; pop music, including Tom Jones and ``What's New Pussycat``; fair signalc due to splatter from WEWN, 5825 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, 41.64N 93.66, R8B, R7, HF-2050, 6790/GM, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. César Objío took a couple of days to show me around Santo Domingo when I was doing a monitoring trip around the Caribbean in the late 80s. Before that he was a regular reporter to NASWA's Log Report when I edited it in the late 60's / early 70's. A good DXer, a loyal reporter, and an interesting and delightful host (Dan Ferguson, DC, in Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) César was one of the few enthusiastic DX-ers in the Caribbean at that time which the DSWCI had contact with. We have sent our condolences. (DSWCI Editor Anker Petersen, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 4814.99, R. el Buen Pastor, 0914 12 Sept., same HCJB ID and programing // 4974.78 [PERU, q.v.]. So these have to be real-time programs and not taped. Was NOT // later at 1031 though. Good signal here with ute QRM from below and a little from the sweeper (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, Beverage of 300' at 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ECUADOR [non]. UNITED KINGDOM, 12025, Al-Akhbar Mufriha (i.e. Joyful News Station), via Skelton, 2130-2230*, Aug 27, Arabic giving address in partly French at 2157 as Al-Akhbar Mufrida, Apto. 353, Malaga 19040, España, and also mentioning http://www.akhbarmufriha.com - right thereafter giving a R. Ibrahim address in Stockholm, Sweden. Confusing, as again Arabic ID as ``Huna idha'at al-Akhbar Mufrida`` at sign off 2230. And a bit of background on the web: On http://www.arabicbroadcasting.com they say: ``We are a radio organization that writes and prepares radio programs in the Arabic language and broadcasts it from many different stations in the world. We broadcast our programs to the Arab World on short wave 12025 KHZ from the Joyful News station every night at 9:00 GMT [i.e. 2100]. From radio Samara the Arabic Section of Radio Moscow on medium wave 1170 KHZ every Wednesday night starting 9:00 GMT - 9:15 GMT [2100, 2115 UT]. And on short wave 9835 KHZ every Wednesday night starting 8:00 - 8:15 GMT [2000-2015 UT]. From Voice of Forgiveness on short wave every Monday at noon.`` Looking for Voice of Forgiveness on web did result in http://www.arabicradio.org with contact address webmaster@arabicradio.org saying: ``Welcome to the Voice of Forgiveness Website. We are an Arabic shortwave radio station. Our purpose is to share the Good News with everybody. We hope that you like our pages and that you enjoy the information it contains. Frequency & Times: 19 mb, SW 15,530 KHz at 04:00 GMT and on 31 mb, SW 9,690 KHz at 19:03 GMT``. A bit contradicting, as Voice of Forgiveness does not limit its programs to Monday 'noon' as does Arabic broadcasting website. 15530 via Samara 250 kW (HFCC A04) and 9690 kHz not listed in HFCC A04 but possibly Samara as well? Neither of the above-mentioned Samara broadcasts Wednesdays are listed in HCCFA04 either? (Finn Krone, Denmark, Aug 28, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) Where to file this one? For the hell of it I put it here, since this transmission has also appeared on HCJB`s schedule, via UK and at certain seasons Canada relay, both on 12025, even tho HCJB is never mentioned above! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ENGLAND, HCJB Relay, 12025, 2210 GMT, Arabic, 333, Aug 29, OM with comments then a YL with comments at 2214. Lotsa static on this frequency (Stewart WDX6AA MacKenzie, Huntington Beach CA, GRDXC et al. Via DXLD) ** ERITREA/ETHIOPIA [nons]. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 21790, R UNMEE, via Al-Dhabbaya, *0900-1000*, Aug 29, very very weak at first but level increased a bit. Had male/female English talk and some male Arabic translated to English by the female, short opera between items (Finn Krone, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) Sundays only? (gh) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from GERMANY, 15365, Voice of Ethiopian Medhin --- latest file remains early August, haven't had a chance to check this one on the air. The medhin.com site listing the 12120 *1830 Sun broadcast has up to date sound files, but I had no luck hearing it again today (using various DXTuners) for the second Sunday. This website has also been redone in the last week; it no longer looks like a carbon copy of medhininfo.com (Hans Johnson, WY, Sept 12, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** EUROPE. SEMI-LEGAL, 7306.05 USB, R. Europe, 0619 12 Sept., pleasant unrecognizable Pop song, 0620 "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, ID and long talk in Italian by M over music. 0625 into "Jive Talkin", more talk, then "Night" Fever" at 0631. Fady signal, quite strong on peaks though. Still coming in at 0658 (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, Beverage of 300' at 40 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Assumed to be in ITALY ** FRANCE. Let the longwave season begin! --- Huge signals this morning from France-Inter longwave on 162 kHz. Lights up all the LEDs on the 2010 when using a longwire, and a home-brew antenna tuner into a Palomar converter that has a 3.5-4 MHz conversion output. It also lights up three LEDs using just the 2010 "barefoot" with the internal ferrite antenna on 162. Male and female sounding serious. News? I can even hear them on a consumer Grundig portable Mike Cooper picked up for me in Europe. 0530 UT, so I guess sunrise enhancement in France comes into play. Low static levels tonight. Signal rivals that of the Far-East Russian LWBC that were so strong and common in Hawaii. Sept. 12 UT (Brock Whaley, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 162 signal is almost always available here (Jim Renfrew, NY, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) I can usually get a het, but this was like listening to a regional AM (Bruce WB3HVV, York, PA, ibid.) ** GERMANY. 3995, Deutsche Welle. (Cf. DX-Window no. 253. Ed) They are still testing what they can do with DRM audio quality and are developing new program forms for HF broadcasting, including music programs for ears normally listening to FM. I have played recordings of DRM music programs to friends of mine who never would touch a conventional shortwave receiver. They were quite surprised about the good audio quality DRM offers. It is not HiFi, but it is definitely good enough for a kitchen or a car radio. Time will tell if this development will bring new DX targets to shortwave (Harald Kuhl, Germany in Dxplorer, Aug 30, via DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. [re DTV thread under USA]. Berlin TV --- ``I think something similar to this was done in Berlin (Germany). The broadcasting authorities simply mandated digital-only, analog was turned off, and either free or subsidized converters were made available.`` --- Well, it was not just mandated; the interest of broadcasters in over-the-air transmissions is generally declining, and the commercial stations have elsewhere in Germany already shut down their (analogue) OTA services. Concerning the converters: For the poor a possibility to obtain subsidized converters was arranged. The other folks simply had to buy one. Not a big issue since a DVB-T box costs just some 100 Euro and makes a cable subscription unnecessary because not less than 26 programmes are available via DVB-T at Berlin, see http://people.freenet.de/davidbeyer/Berlin-Brandenburg.htm (below the listing of the PAL transmitters outside Berlin; by the way, I know *nobody* who actually tunes in to "our" local ch. 45 transmitter). ``I bought a 5" B&W portable (625 lines, systems B/G) in Germany last year and people asked me "what are you buying THIS for?"`` --- Yes, most people I know consider a 12 cm b&w-picture as pure nonsense. But more importantly such a set will in many areas catch only three programmes: ARD ("Das Erste"), ZDF and the own program of the ARD institution serving the area. No RTL, no Sat.1, no Pro7 etc. ``But broadcasting of any sort is much more of a public/private sector cooperative effort in almost any European country than in the US, for reasons that would go beyond the scope of this message board. My wife's family in Poland pays a TV tax ("abonament") every year.`` --- But it should be mentioned that at least in Germany the licence fees are simply the main financing source for the public broadcasters (instead of subsidies from the state). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. SUSPENDEN ADJUDICACIÓN DE FRECUENCIAS RADIALES Se investigan varias radiomisoras [sic] por abuso del espectro. Tegucigalpa. La creciente inversión en la instalación de radioemisoras en todo el país se paralizará de manera temporal por la saturación en estaciones en frecuencia modulada (FM). Esa decisión ha sido tomada por la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel) y se reactivará después de verificar el uso del espectro radioeléctrico en todas las ciudades del país. Según los registros de ese organismo, el número de operadores ha aumentado en los años recientes desde que se comenzó a ordenar la explotación de las frecuencias radiales, ya que había un acaparamiento con el único propósito de hacer negocio. Suspensión "En la actualidad existe una saturación del rango de frecuencias 88-108 megahertz, utilizado por estaciones del servicio de radiodifusión en frecuencia modulada", dice la resolución emitida por la Conatel. Agrega que la demanda existente para nuevas estaciones de FM requiere que se tomen las medidas pertinentes, a fin de determinar la ocupación real del espectro radioeléctrico, así como realizar consideraciones y estudios de orden técnico para determinar la factibilidad de continuar con la asignación de frecuencias. Ante esa situación, se suspende la asignación de nuevas licencias para estaciones de radiodifusión, que impliquen la reutilización de una frecuencia previamente autorizada, exceptuando aquellas que sean solicitadas por un operador con el fin de reutilizar la misma en otra comunidad o área de servicio. Irregularidades A raíz de denuncias interpuestas por radiodifusores por el uso del espectro, la Conatel ha documentado una serie de anomalias cometidas por propietarios de estaciones. Una de ellas es en contra del propietario de Discovery 99.1 FM de Nacaome, Valle, Douglas Mejía, a quien se le autorizó una radio de baja potencia de 70 watts, pero violentado lo autorizado por la Comisión, ha ampliado su capacidad a 1,000 watts de salida, lo que ha provocado daños a Radio Meridiano 99.1 FM de Choluteca, ya que su cobertura ahora es regional. El caso está en poder de la Conatel y en los próximos días se procederá a sancionar a Mejia (Luís A. Rodríguez, http://www.elheraldo.hn/detalle.php?nid=18006&sec=9&fecha=2004-09- 03 set 3 via Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Conexión Digital Sept 10 via DXLD) ** INDIA. DOORDARSHAN NOT TO CHARGE RENTAL FOR DTH Chennai, Sept. 11 --- DOORDARSHAN is to start direct-to-home (DTH) telecast this month, FM radio stations are to multiply, All India Radio is to widen its reach and community radio stations are set to grow. "This will be a fairly important year for broadcasting," said the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy. In an interaction with presspersons at The Hindu here on Saturday, Mr Reddy said that the DTH telecast would only involve a one-time expenditure of about Rs 3,000 for reception. The subscribers will not face a rental charge. With four transponders available there will be space for about 40 channels. It offers major potential in extending the reach of the national broadcaster and catering to a wider range of the public. Apart from the Doordarshan channels, some private channels will also be available. These include the Sun network, Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Zee, and "I have also spoken personally to BBC'', he said. The DTH will also help deliver educational programmes more effectively. Though there is the Government-sponsored `Gyandarshan', the cable operators are not willing to accommodate it. The public had been able to watch the recent Olympics because the cable operators had to oblige due to popular demand. Even the DD is at the mercy of the 50,000 cable operators, he said. It is only the DTH and broadband, operating simultaneously, that can bypass the operators. The DTH can accommodate about 200 channels. Incidentally, Prasar Bharti paid out over Rs 26 crore to telecast the Olympics and lost about Rs 18 crore in the process; it recovered only about Rs 7-8 crore. The broadcaster's annual expenditure is about Rs 1,800 crore but its revenue is about Rs 600 crore, and the Government makes good the balance as a grant every year. The Government is considering whether to have a main regulator for this sector or one for carriage and another for content. Britain and the US have gone for a grand convergence regulator. But they have done it after long years of consideration, he said. An advantage of the DTH is that 20 radio channels will also be available, and these will be of FM quality on this platform. The Government is hoping to expand the number of FM radio stations. At the present level of technology, there is space for about 400 stations. Earlier efforts had not come up to expectations because of the losses allegedly suffered by the existing players. On the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India the Government is working on a formula by which the FM radio stations can be expanded. "The emphasis is on expansion, we are determined to set it up this fiscal year." There is a potential for about 400 stations, and that represents huge potential income to the Government, the Minister said. However, a decision whether to permit news channels in the FM basket is yet to be taken. Community radio stations could also be expanded, and there is space for about 4,000 stations. But a major constraint has been the stringent regulations and the number of clearances from various agencies including the Home Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau. "I am trying to liberalise, simplify and rationalise the rules," he said. The AIR is also expanding. It currently covers about 30 per cent of the population and by the end of the current plan period it will reach 50 per cent (from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com via Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, Sept 12, DXLD) ** INDIA. GOVERNMENT LIKELY TO TAX CONSUMERS TO FUND PRASAR BHARATI Here's a news item on I & B minister pitching for the idea of imposing radio license fee for revenue generation during a function organised by "Jan Prasar" in New Delhi. Well --- last year also somebody from Govt mooted this idea but nothing happened! Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dx_india via DXLD) ------------------------ New Delhi, Sept. 12 (PTI): The Government today said it is contemplating imposing an annual fee or a one-time licence fee on the purchase of radio and television sets in order to make public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, financially and professionally autonomous. Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy, said this was being contemplated in order to guarantee financial autonomy for the public broadcasters All-India Radio and Doordarshan. "The Prasar Bharati, which covers almost the entire country including remote areas, has no capacity to increase its resources and depends on the Government for financial support," Reddy said at a function organised by 'Jan Prasar'. Against an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,800 crores, revenues of Prasar Bharati are only around Rs 600 crores, he said, adding that almost two-thirds of the financial requirement was being met through Government resources. Reddy said in order to help the public broadcaster reduce its dependence on the Government, an annual licence fee, as exists in Britain, can be imposed. "In Britain, people pay almost Rs. 10,000 which goes to fund the BBC and we may go in for a similar model," he said. Alternatively, he suggested a one-time licence fee on the purchase of TV or radio sets to fund the public broadcaster. "The issue has to be debated and I call on NGOs and academicians involved in the communication sector to generate public support for working a mechanism to this end," he said, adding that political consensus also needed to be created on the matter. He said he had made efforts to ensure that Income Tax was not levied on the public broadcaster, though it was still being subjected to service tax. Reddy recalled that he was the one to implement the Prasar Bharati Act granting autonomy to the institution. "Now we have to make efforts to make it financially independent as well," he said. On other issues, the Minister said DD's Direct-to-Home (DTH) service would begin operations from this month, initially kicking off with 30 free-to-air channels. "We propose to have 40 channels on-board by the end of the year," Reddy said. Also, he said the Government was making efforts in the radio sector, particularly to increase the growth of FM and community radio The Hindu (via Alokesh Gupta, dx_india via DXLD) FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE ESSENTIAL TO GRANT TRUE AUTONOMY TO PRASAR BHARATI - REDDY --- 16:57 IST The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Sh S. Jaipal Reddy said today that financial autonomy of Public Broadcaster was essential for giving true autonomy to Doordarshan and All India Radio. Speaking at a seminar on "A Decade of Citizen's Initiative" organized by Jan Prasar, he said all non-governmental organizations and academicians engaged in the field of mass-communication should come forward and work towards creating an enabling environment conducive for creating of model in which financial autonomy of Prasar Bharati can be ensured. He said during his last tenure in the Ministry of I&B, he had worked towards a bill aimed at annual license fee, which was criticized by manufacturers of television sets. He said financial autonomy to Prasar Bharti was essential to take it out of governmental control. With nearly two third of expenditure being funded by the Government, it was not possible to stop Government intervention, he said. Sh Reddy also announced that Prasar Bharti was all set to launch its DTH later this month which will initially have 30 channels which will include 14 channels of Doordarshan. The number of channels would go to 40 by yearend. The main feature of DTH service is that it will be available to the people free of cost. They will have to make onetime investment of Rs. 3,000 only for buying the set. On future of FM and Community radio, the Minister said a regime enabling huge expansion was being worked out. Efforts were on to simplify and rationalize procedures in allowing setting up of community radio. He said the country could have up to 4,000 community radio stations and over 400 FM radio stations (Press Information Bureau, Govt of India via Alokesh Gupta, dx_india via DXLD) ** INDIA. Re: AIR Bangalore "non" QSL --- Thanks to a message from Jose Jacob, who took the time to search the archives at dx_india (which I should have done first before posting my original message), the schedule for AIR Independence Day coverage did in fact list 15040 as via Delhi while 13620 was listed as via Bangalore. I misread the schedule in my haste to send a reception report (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. La Voz de Indonesia en Español --- Colegas de las listas: Después de muchas semanas sin poder escuchar La Voz de Indonesia, ayer lo conseguí. Por primera vez encontré la emisión en una frecuencia distinta a la habitual de 15150. Fue concretamente en 9525, a la hora de siempre (desde 1700 hasta 1800). La señal era muy débil y, entre 1725 y 1750 estuvo apantallada por una emisión mas potente de la BBC en inglés. Saludos (Jesús María Iglesias, EA1-0986, Asturias, Spain, Sept 12, (c) Notici@sDX via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. LISTEN UP: THE WEB IS CLASSICAL'S FRIEND By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic, Sun, Aug. 29, 2004 http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/local/9512907.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp Somewhere in the world, there's great classical-music radio, though it's likely to be thousands of miles outside of Philadelphia signal range. But not out of cyber range. While music lovers here and in other major cities weep at the decline of classical radio, something more stimulating has popped up when backs were turned: Web radio. In these dog days of August, a click of the mouse takes you to veteran pianist Alfred Brendel playing his final BBC Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall, Simon Rattle conducting the Wagner opera Das Rheingold with historically accurate instruments, and Audra McDonald singing an electrifying monologue from John Adams' still-in-progress opera, Doctor Atomic. And that's only London's BBC Radio 3. RAI 3 in Rome, RTBF Musique 3 in Brussels, and Radio France France- Musiques in Paris all generate their own distinctive programming, but also share among themselves, which means the BBC Rheingold you missed on a Thursday turns up weeks or months later in a Webcast from Lugano, Switzerland. There's so much music rattling around in this huge, global rotation that, with the proper home equipment, you can even access Placido Domingo in Poland - on video. And then there are the radio stations in Brazil. And Russia. As with shortwave radio, you can eavesdrop on the world. Although Web radio isn't as daunting as it first seems, it's still not for those who use classical radio merely as good company. For that audience, there's satellite radio, mainly Sirius and XM. With some equipment outlay and a fairly modest subscription price, the two networks each have three stations with symphonic, vocal and pops programming drawn from preexisting recordings (though Sirius has the occasional live or taped studio performance by Yo-Yo Ma or Opera Babes). Programs are judiciously chosen, and once you trust the choosers, satellite radio is the pleasantly passive experience that so much of American classical radio turned into during the 1990s. Web radio is for the proactive, the aggressive, those who want to be their own program directors and are willing to schedule their lives around particular programs. And why not? People maintain standing dates with The Sopranos. I'll take Couperin motets sung live at Notre Dame Cathedral. Lots of magnificent European artists do great work there but not here, and I don't mean events like Plácido in Poland, but less-glittering figures such as Marcus Creed conducting the North German Radio Choir in music by an eccentric J.S. Bach contemporary, Jan Dismas Zelenka. These experiences alter your life, as opposed to just gussy it up. The Web radio convenience improves constantly. Only a few years ago, accessing classical broadcasts on the Web felt terribly underground, like Radio Free Europe. Fellow music nerds would spread the word about times and Web addresses, you'd click on the speaker logo and suddenly, soprano Natalie Dessay was singing an opening night at La Scala. But with chancy phone connections, the voice could disappear like a mirage. Now, high-speed Internet services ensure a more stable (but by no means infallible) Web radio connection. Any program from Windows 98 onward accommodates special files needed for streaming, such as Quick Time, Real Player, and Windows Media Player. Where to get them? They find you if you click on enough icons in a given radio station's home page. Several umbrella Web sites link you directly into any given station's classical schedule and streaming connections without having to decipher foreign languages. The main one is http://www.classicalwebcast.com listing 44 European Web radio sites from Estonia to Croatia, 61 American radio stations, including Philadelphia's part-time classical station WRTI-FM, and 14 stations on other continents, from Santiago to Melbourne to Seoul. Next to each set of station call letters, an icon showing planet Earth tells you what time it is in that part of the world - an aid to understanding the radio schedule times (which are available by clicking on the adjacent "I" icon). Most stations have a sound-speaker icon. Click on it, wait a minute, and you're hearing whatever is currently being streamed. Naturally, you'd do well to know foreign words for "listen," such as ascolta in Italian or hoeren in German. But most icons are so intuitive that you can figure it out. Three Web sites give an astronaut's-eye view of global opera, such as http://www.operaworld.com which is full of Webcast schedules mostly for American stations. Site http://www.operapronto.info/webcasts.html provides a basic primer on necessary equipment plus regular opera programs around the world, including Sunday Night at the Opera from KRCU in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The GMN arts network, whose address is http://www.gmn.com has lots of brand-name musicians such as Valery Gergiev, with subscriber privileges ($9.99 a month) that include broadband videos (such as Plácido in Poland). In a class by itself is Andante.com, which for a $9.99-per-month subscription fee offers streamed concerts - both recent and from the archives - by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Salzburg Festival, and London's hallowed Wigmore Hall. Legendary names pass through its "Musicroom," such as Wilhelm Furtwaengler conducting in Amsterdam and pianist Josef Hofmann playing in Philadelphia. Beware of quirks among foreign radio stations, which, in some ways, aren't as slick as their American counterparts. During the John Adams Dr. Atomic excerpts carried live last Sunday on BBC Radio 3, the intermission feature wasn't the artist interviews customary in American radio, but a woman reading what sounded like a Scottish bedtime story. She was interrupted midsentence as the broadcast abruptly switched back to Royal Albert Hall. The Web aspect of radio imposes certain limitations, namely lack of portability. Forget about listening to it in the car, at least for now. Some office computers purposely don't accommodate Real Player or Quick Time players. Thus, Web radio takes listening habits back to a time before the Sony Walkman, before music became a soundtrack to multitasking. This is good. One particular stumbling block for audiophiles is sound quality; indeed, Webcasts arrive with an aural screen between you and the music. Whether this is a problem is bound to be a personal matter. As someone who listens to 78 r.p.m. records, I can listen past the screen, though I'm always aware of it. Of course, the best sound comes from cleanly delineated performances, whether chamber music or Brendel's BBC farewell with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 - in the which the playing was so highly charged, so much about a great artist galvanizing his long-accumulated wisdom, that the performance induced goose bumps. The Rattle-conducted Rheingold, however, combined a dense score recorded in the cavernous acoustic of Royal Albert Hall. So when postperformance commentators were raving about details in the orchestral balances, I knew I'd missed a lot. More subtle is the sound's lack of heat, which has an impact on your attentiveness. The problem is more elusive than just the overall antiseptic aura. No matter how good the sound system, I suspect many will find it difficult to sit like the RCA Victor dog, head cocked toward the computer, listening to His Master's Voice. So far, Web sound lacks immediacy. It's a relay medium that doesn't yet take us through the looking glass and into the world we're listening to. That may change as equipment and software evolve. As for now, better to have aural postcards from these alluring, distant lands of music than nothing at all. (c) 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.grandforks.com (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. 15500, Information Radio, Sign-off time seems to vary quite a bit. Yesterday they were on till well after 1800. Reception was surprisingly good before 1757 (SINPO 34433) and the signal here in Germany was still OK on a ICF-SW7600GR and ATS909 with telescopic whip antenna (Harald Kuhl in Dxplorer, Aug 30, via DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) SITE? 15500U, Information Radio, 1644 Sept 10. Pop music in English. ID by woman as "Maulumati Radio" at 1645 but I'm not sure what language she was speaking in. Then talk by man in another unID language. Middle Eastern music followed. What sounded like Farsi with a man talking at 1652. I tried on DXTuner UAE and heard nothing but poor/fair via DXT Europe with some QRM (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. MOLDOVA, 7460, Payam-e Doost, strong signal on DXTuner Europe with usual female announcer at 0235, then ID at 0237. Then start of what sounded like a kids program Sep 12 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. THREE UNLICENSED RADIO STATIONS RAIDED & SHUT DOWN 18:30 Sep 12, '04 --- (IsraelNN.com) Communication Ministry inspectors and police today raided three unlicensed radio stations operating in Kiryat Shmona, closing them down. The three stations are Radio Somayach, Arutz 2000, and Kol Emet. . . http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=68829 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** JAPAN. (all via DXTuner Japan) 5428U, (Presumed) with talk by man in Japanese at 2317 Sep 11. 6175U Tokyo 1, 2310 Sep 11 with classical music // 6130U Fukuoka 1, 3970U Nagoya 1, 6005 Sapporo 1 which was the best (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** KASHMIR. INDIA. 4830, AIR Jammu, 1840-1927*, Aug 25, extended broadcast with live report in Hindi/English on basketball match India vs. Pakistan which Pakistan won 3-0! Also a few songs and ads, 34333 heard // Kurseong 4895 (45333), Jaipur 4910 (32333, Srinagar 4950 (21331), Ranchi 4960 (23321), Thiruvananthapuram 5010 (44433) and Aizawl 5050 (34232) (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) I don`t know much about silly ballgames, but I have noticed that scores in a typical BKB game here are around 100. Either this was not BKB, or scoring is entirely different in South Asia, or both teams are terrific at defense and horrible at hitting the basket. In any event, beats lobbing nuclear missiles at each other (gh, DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. Clandestines: 4025.3, Voice of the People of Kurdistan, Al-Sulaymaniyah (tentative), No. Iraq, 1830-1903*, Sep 02, Kurdish talk, folksongs, martial song at close, 22232. After 1903 a weaker European pirate was heard with pop music. 6340.0, Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan, Salah al-Din, Northern Iraq, 0313- 0435 fade out, Sep 03 and 04, New frequency ex-4085, Kurdish woman reading poems with string music, 0156 Kurdish ID, 0200 news with jingle between items, 12221. 6340.0, Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan, Salah al-Din, Northern Iraq, 1630- 1802*, Sep 04 and 05, Kurdish talks, folksongs, 1700 ID: "Aira dangi Kurdistani Iraqa", news by man and woman with many mentions of Iraq and Kurdistan, 1710 ID once more, folksongs, 32443 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) Should we really consider these clandestines any longer? (gh, DXLD) ** LATVIA. (via DXTuner Eu) 9290, 1200 Sept 12, heard with transmission provider and ID by woman in English. STV, PO Box 371, Riga LV 1010, Latvia. Telephone 3719224105 and email address that was ...@parks.lv (as heard). Then into Q103 program in German. A bit of dance music, then ID and talk by man (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LIBYA. 11180 USB, Voice of Iraq, LJB, Libya, 1850-1945*, Aug 28 and Sep 02, Arabic announcement, songs, 1858 LJB External Service ID: "Idha'at aljamahriya al arabiya al libya alsha'biya al istrakya al Ozma". Talk about Iraq and Saudi Arabia, more Arab songs, talk about democracy. New schedule, 35434 heard // 9605.0 (: 45344 deteriorating) and 11660 (: 22332). 9745 was covered by QRM (Finn Krone and Anker Petersen, Denmarks, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) 11180U, Libyan Broadcasting, 1826 Sept 10, talk by man in Arabic, a few sentences and then music fanfare, again and again. Much of it was in the form of questions concerning mass rule and a national conference. // 9605 which was much worse. Had to tune briefly away, but retuned at 1840 to Arabic music. 1844 ID for Libyan Broadcasting and then talk by professor on various political systems, such as monarchies and democracies. (via DXTuner Eu) (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LIBYA. Today 12/9/04 checking the MW band I noticed that around 0315 UT on 1251, Voice of Africa booming in with the time pips and an ID, ``It's 5:15 here in the Voice Of Africa; this is the news.`` First time to hear Libya so strong on the MW since a very long time as I recall. 0325 UT the news headlines in English, followed by the news headlines in French, followed by another ID in Arabic "Sout Afrikia min aljamaheriya al ouzma" --- Voice of Africa from Great Jamaheriya. Then a religious program. The transmitter is located in Tripoli with output 500 kW but sounds like it's reactivated; last time I checked Libya, it wasn't active. All the best, yours (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [non]. 11535, Minivan R, *1628-1731*, Sep 03, Maldivian and English, drum-music, many IDs as "Minivan Radio", e- mail: admin @ friendsofmaldives.co.uk and http://www.friendsofmaldives.co.uk Heard // with 9985 (weaker audio in the first half of the programme, then normal audio compared to 11535). 34333 (Bjarke Vestesen, Radby, Blommenslyst, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) New test on Sep 03 only on these frequencies! (DCSWI Ed) CLANDESTINE from GERMANY to MALDIVES, 13855, Minivan Radio, 1631 Sept 10, briefly checked on DXTuner Europe and found it blocked as others have noted. Switched over to DXT UAE and found a man talking in a language with a mention of "Friends of Maldives." 1636 with horn and bird IS and ID by man. Then more talk by same man (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4810.00, XERTA, R. Transcontinental de América, Mexico City, tentatively heard 0410-0430 (fade out), Mon Sep 06, Spanish talk by various people, jingles, song. Scheduled weekends only. Only audible in LSB due to QRM from CODAR (?), 22332 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 4895, Mongolian R., Murun, 2205-2224, Aug 24, very strong in Mongolian with newscast till 2210, frequency announcement, tunes, talks; 54343; the audio seems to denote either some distortion or then the carrier is over modulated (can anyone ascertain this?). Very poor signal the following day. I unsuccessfully tried the other // outlets (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 4960, CRN, 1112-1136 12 Sept., M and W hosts in Pidgin (although M did most of the talking), with many mentions of PNG, "10 o'clock Monday", 1992, church, 1996, "talk-talk", "sing- sing", program, "3 o'clock", "number 1", 1985, Sunday, etc. Some laughing at 1116 and 1134. Went over BoH talking and still going at 1136 tune-out. Fading and getting difficult by 1130 with Sun about 10 degrees above the horizon. 1147 could just make out religious choral music at recheck. Easily good enough to ID at tune-in (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, Beverage of 300' at 320 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PARAGUAY. 9736.9, R. Nacional del Paraguay, Asunción, 2219, Aug 25, Spanish, light songs; 54433, dreadful modulation - couldn't they adjust that for good?! (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** PARAGUAY. RADIO AMÉRICA HA AUMENTADO SU POTENCIA http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?fec=2004-09-11&pid=133103&sec=9 La radio América, 1480 AM, ha aumentado su potencia. La emisora cristiana tiene un nuevo transmisor de 5 kv, que está ubicada en Villeta, con antena de 125 metros de altura. La radio también transmite por internet a través del sitio http://www.radiodifusionamerica.com.py lo que permite llegar a todos los países del mundo. El director general de la radio, el pastor José A. Holowaty, dice que la nueva potencia permite alcanzar 250 a 300 km, llegando a ser casi como una emisora de onda corta en las noches. La programación de la radio es básicamente cristiana. La emisora depende de la Iglesia Bíblica Misionera, que está ubicada en Ñemby. Ofrece programas de interpretación de la Biblia, tanto en castellano como en guaraní. Su programación incluye también tres noticieros diarios que son retransmitidos por las radios Puerto Triunfo y Bella Vista, del departamento de Itapúa. La radio también ofrece grabaciones de programas especiales, que son enviadas a varias emisoras, en formato MP3. El pastor Holowaty, de nacionalidad estadounidense, tiene una larga trayectoria en la radiodifusión. Durante 30 años trabajó en una red cristiana mundial de radiodifusión, cuya base se encontraba en San Francisco [FEBC, KGEI]. Desde aquí preparaba programas para América Latina. También es autor de varios libros de reflexión cristiana, entre ellos "Ahora entiendo" y "Ahora que hay tiempo". (ABC Color Digital, Asunción, Sept 11 via Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) ** PERU. 5939.33, R. Melodía, 0736 12 Sept., Very professional M announcer over OA Pop-like music. 0742 M again with TC and brief announcement sounding like an ID at the end. Into a more Caribbean flavored song, and lively OA song. 0751 M back with short announcement including ID and "muy buenos dias". If modulation was up to 100%, this wouldn't be half bad. Of course 5935 slop QRM (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D, ANT: Beverage of 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PERU. 4974.78, R. del Pacífico, 0751-0900 12 Sept., Usual HCJB programing with canned IDs at the top and bottom of the hour. Was actually playing rock music at 0828. Quite readable. See ECUADOR: Buen Pastor (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD- 535D, ANT: Beverage of 300' at 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL. Saludos cordiales amigos radioescuchas: TRANSMISIONES EN ONDA CORTA DE RDP INTERNACIONAL (PORTUGAL) EN PORTUGUÉS: Hora UTC Frec. KHz Banda Potencia Azimut (º) Zona recepción Días 1200-2300* 17575* 16 m 100 Kw 294º EUA / Canadá 2ª a 6ª 2300-0200 9715 31 m 100 Kw 294º EUA / Canadá 2ª a 6ª 2300-0200 15480 19 m 100 Kw 310º EUA / Canadá 2ª a 6ª 1200-2000 17575 16 m 100 Kw 294º EUA / Canadá Sáb/Dom 2000-2300* 17575* 16 m 100 Kw 294º EUA / Canadá Sáb/Dom 1700-2300* 21540* 13 m 100 Kw 261º Venezuela 2ª a 6ª 2300-0200 13700 22 m 100 Kw 261º Venezuela 2ª a 6ª 1200-2000 17615 16 m 100 Kw 261º Venezuela Sáb/Dom 1900-2300* 21540* 13 m 100 Kw 261º Venezuela Sáb/Dom 1000-1200 21655 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1000-1200 21725 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1600-1900 21655 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1600-1900 21800 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1900-2300* 21800* 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 0700-1000 17710 16 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1000-2000 21655 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2ª a 6ª 1900-2300* 21800* 13 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné 2º a 6ª 2300-0200 13660 22 m 100 Kw 215º Brasil 2ª a 6ª 2300-0200 15295 19 m 300 Kw 226º Brasil 2ª a 6ª 1000-1200 21830 13 m 100 Kw 142º África 2ª a 6ª 1600-1900 17680 16 m 300 Kw 144º África 2ª a 6ª 1900-2300* 11945* 25 m 300 Kw 144º África 2ª y 6ª 0700-1655 21830 13 m 100 Kw 142º África Sáb/Dom 1700-2000 17680 16 m 300 Kw 144º África Sáb/Dom 1900-2300* 11945* 25 m 300 Kw 144º África Sáb/Dom 0500-0700 7240 41 m 300 Kw 45º Europa 2ª a 6ª 0700-0755 9815 31 m 300 Kw 45º Europa 2ª a 6ª 0500-0755 9840 31 m 100 Kw 52º Europa 2ª a 6ª 0645-0800 11850 25 m 250 Kw 55º Europa 2ª a 6ª 0800-1200 12020 25 m 300 Kw 45º Europa 2ª a 6ª 1600-1900 15525 19 m 100 Kw 52º Europa 2ª a 6ª 1600-1900 13770 22 m 300 Kw 45º Europa 2ª a 6ª 1900-2300* 15445* 19 m 300 Kw 45º Europa 2ª a 6ª 1900-2300* 13720* 22 m 100 Kw 52º Europa 2ª a 6ª 0700-1355 12020 25 m 300 Kw 45º Europa Sáb/Dom 0700-1345 13640 22 m 100 Kw 52º Europa Sáb/Dom 0830-1000 11995 25 m 250 Kw 55º Europa Sáb/Dom 1400-2000 13770 22 m 300 Kw 45º Europa Sáb/Dom 1400-2000 15555 19 m 100 Kw 52º Europa Sáb/Dom 2000-2300* 15555* 19 M 100 Kw 52º Europa Sáb/Dom 1900-2300* 13720* 22 m 100 Kw 52º Europa Sáb/Dom 1300-1500 21810 13 m 100 Kw 81,5º Oriente Medio/India 2ª a 6ª (*) Transmisiones extraordinarias Informes de recepción – Formulario en: http://programas.rtp.pt/canais-radio/rdpi/rescuta.php?canal=5 Vía: Página Web de la emisora http://programas.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/ Muy atentamente (José Bueno, España, Sept 11, Noticias DX via DXLD) Not sure above sked is new, but it is certainly more succinct than the usual ones from Lisboa (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ST. KITTS. Notable missing --- 555 St Kitts, wonder if they've been silenced due to Ivan. Am going to go look for Jamaica now. 73, (Bruce WB3HVV, York PA, Drake R8B, 375ft BOG terminated at 45 degrees, 30 ft wire at 6 ft, MFJ 1025 phaser, Sept 12, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** SEALAND. Re: Hollywood set to make film about Sealand --- If Hollywood messes the story around in the same way they had the wartime US Navy capturing the German navy's enigma machine codes etc., then the film will not be worth watching. I phoned the BBC after they showed the above film and asked when they would be putting the record straight on-air (perhaps by showing the British film of this incident) but as is usual got the 'no future plans' stock response - BBC 'Information' they call it! (Rog Parsons, Hinckley, Leics., Sept 11, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.89, SIBC, 0757 11 Sept., end of island song, W with song announcements and ID for "ABC Radio", talk, into soft music. R. Happy Isles ID during announcement by W at 0933. Ad with roosters and dogs barking SFX. Nice ID at 1006 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SYRIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from GERMANY to SYRIA, 13650, Radio Free Syria (Presumed), 1852 checking for their additional broadcast on Fridays, Sept 10. Man talking in Arabic, mentioning the Syrian [political] system and how impacts Syrians. 1856 musical interlude and slogan by man of "Peace and Democracy." 1858 off; if they had an ID at this time, I missed it (via DXTuner UAE) (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** THAILAND. 8743, Thai Meteorological Radio, Bangkok, 2132-2145, Aug 25, weather report in English, then IS 2136 followed by report in Thai; 25231; // 6765 but under very strong utility QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) Letter and folding paper QSL-card, both full-data. V/S on letter is Ms. Jantima Niyomchok, for Director of Meteorological Information Communication Division. Folder has drawing of Thai dancer and "Bangkok Radio Verification QSL-Card" on front, detailed station info (power: 1 kW) and veri statement with penned-in details inside, map on back. In 3 weeks for CD report for reception in Hawaii (Jerry Berg, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. 4940.0, R. Ukraine International, 0115-0215, Sep 05 Ukrainian, and 0300-0400*, Sep 08, English, programs heard // scheduled on 7545 via Mykolaiv, clear RUI interval signal 0200 and 0300. Spurious signal with poor modulation. 24333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Sept 8 via DXLD) What`s the formula on this one? Not 2B -A or 2A -B. Was not 4940 once listed as a Ukrainian fundamental? (gh, DXLD) ** U K. DO MY EARS DECEIVE ME? Listening to the BBC World Service over the weekend via DAB, I feel sure that the audio quality has deteriorated slightly, as if the bit rate has been reduced. I noticed this during my regular Saturday morning listens, namely "Write on" at 0345 UT and "World Football" at 0632. Also checking this afternoon during the football commentary between Spurs and Norwich, where there was quite a definite difference between the audio on BBC WS as against that on 5 Live. BBC WS has always been considerably louder than 5 Live on DAB, but I haven't previously noticed any difference in quality. Discuss. (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, Sept 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Fancy a slightly anorakish boat trip? http://www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk have a forthcoming trip on the preserved paddle steamer "Waverley" from the Prince of Wales pier at Dover's Western Docks to Tower (Bridge) Pier in London on Friday Sept 24th. Departs at 9.30 am and return journey by coach arrives back at Dover at 7.30 pm. The voyage involves a journey (about a mile offshore) into the Thames estuary; the usual route is normally well to the South of Shivering and Redsands Towers, so without a diversion or a good pair of binoculars not much can be seen. These old offshore military gun emplacements are 2 of several abandoned WW2 forts that were used by pirate radio stations during the 1960's. You do get a good view of the Thames flood barrier, Greenwich waterfront, Millennium Dome, Canary Wharf and Tower Bridge which open for the vessel to pass beneath. The Waverley has a bar, restaurant but alas no studio or transmitter hall! Tickets are £37.00 - OAP's £33.00 Ticket sales Tel: 0845 130 4647 or buy a ticket while aboard. Regards (Andy Cadier, Sept 12, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. RFE/RL LEAVE CENTRE OF CZECH CAPITAL WITHIN TWO YEARS: see CZECH REPUBLIC ** U S A. WYFR is back on the air, but with only two transmitters, as far as I can tell. First noted Sept 12 at 1400 on 13695, with ID in English, then into Mandarin, and ``A Mighty Fortress`` sung in that language with piano accompaniment. I then checked all the bands, and the only other WYFR frequency found was 17750, in English, usual huge signal here. At 1500 13695 went off as scheduled but could not hear it on 11865 which is supposed to take over the Mandarin service (to North America), while 17750 continued in English. At 1730 recheck, the only WYFR frequency heard was 17795 in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WYFR Update --- Greetings Gents, Late last evening electrical power was restored to the WYFR site after being off over a week. Because of many remaining problems, only two transmitters are presently on the air --- #8 and #13. We hope to have #11 on in a couple hours, after some repairs are completed. It may take some time before the full house is up, perhaps around two weeks before every service is restored. We'll gradually restore one at a time, making repairs as we go. Almost every circuit that we put power to seems to have problems. Still no power at home. As I probably already mentioned, the entire WYFR office area is totally trashed, so I'll be working in a very low- efficiency mode for a while. Best regards, (Dan Elyea, WYFR, 12 Sep 2004 1653 UT via Jeff White, George Thurman, DXLD) ** U S A. Hi Jeff, Maybe I`m confused, but I was thinking I heard Brother Scare this morning (Sat) instead of WRN??? So I went to your website to see if you had put up an updated sked. No luck. But I also took a close look at your coverage maps. It looks like the North American one has at least as big a back lobe as a front lobe. Is this correct? I thought a log periodic would be much more directional than that. And is it for 15725, 7385, or 6870, which would surely be different. On the Latin American map, it`s very hard to see how Cuba lies under all those contours, but I suppose that means the varying skip distance is very critical. And then there`s the antenna array on the program schedule. What kind of antenna is that, and is that what you actually use for one service or the other? It certainly doesn`t look like a rotatable LP. Good luck with Ivan. I guess I haven`t asked you directly about how much and what kind of damage WRMI suffered from Frances. (Or your office, home, I hope not). 73, (Glenn to Jeff White, via DXLD) Glenn: Yes, I'm afraid you did hear the Brother on Saturday morning. We have a technical complication in that Brother Stair's satellite has replaced WRN's satellite signal on our automation system, and for some reason there's no room to put WRN back on without making some changes that Kiko hasn't had time to do yet. I hope this is only temporary, but it really isn't his highest priority at the moment since it isn't paid programming. Re the NA coverage map, I don't remember who produced that specific one. It might have been George Jacobs or Oldrich Cip or maybe even ourselves. I'll try to find the original, and some of the others we have, to see if they are all pretty much the same. The problem is that, as you know, those things are pretty theoretical anyway, and there are a lot of variations based on time of year, sunspot numbers and a series of variable factors that you enter in the program. I'm not sure whether this one was for 7385 or 15725, but I doubt that 6870 would be significantly different from 7385. Another problem is that, as I recall, the VOACAP program doesn't have either one of our antennas in its database exactly, so you have to choose something that's relatively similar. The antenna just above the program schedule is the corner reflector used for Latin America. It is much larger than the North American antenna, and would probably withstand some pretty high winds, but probably not a direct hit from Ivan. Fortunately, we didn't have any serious damage from Frances, although we have had some problems operating on 9955 kHz which we hope to resolve within the next few days (Jeff White, WRMI, Sept 12, to gh, via DXLD) 9955, WRMI checked at 2323 Sat Sept 11 via DXTuner FL but nothing heard, neither the station (skip zone, perhaps) nor any jamming. This is where they should be, per the August sked on their website. Must have changed as found on 6870 with WRMI English ID and into Christian program, "Reality in Jesus." Sked lists Foro Militar Cubano at this time. Same thing the next day, on 6870 instead of 9955 at 2303 with English Christian program (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** U S A. AFRTS/AFN, Key West, Florida not heard on 7507 or 5446.5. Hurricane Ivan's approach is assumed the reason (Pete Costello, NJ?, 1242 UT Sept 12, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Been reading about the Keys being evacuated; I guess that includes these guys (Hans Johnson, ibid.) ** U S A. WBCQ REMOTE BROADCASTS FROM THE M/S KATIE Greetings to all, We've successfully conducted three remote broadcasts from the M/S Katie in East Boston, Massachusetts, via WBCQ, since Saturday. On Saturday, September 11, from 0400 to 0530, we did a test broadcast on 5105 following Derek's "Squad 51 Country" show. Allan arrived early Saturday morning, and we opened up 7415 at around 1945 and broadcast there until 2100. We started up again on Sunday at 0000 on 5105. We were planning to run until 0200 but our broadband internet link dropped at around 0110 and didn't come back for about an hour. Jen cut into simulcast with 7415 between about 0115 to 0200. A new rudder is scheduled to be installed on the Katie this afternoon, and if all goes well we might attempt some remote broadcasts from the harbor in the upcoming evenings on 5105 starting at 0000 UT. We've been sending occasional SSTV transmissions at random times during our shows. If you have decoded any of our transmitted images, we'd really appreciate seeing how your reception was at your location. Please send your captured images, along with the date, time and location received, to theboat @ wbcq.com We will send a special package to SSTV replies. Special QSL cards will be issued for these special broadcasts. QSL requests will be accepted via postal mail only to WBCQ, 97 High Street, Kennebunk, ME 04043 USA. With best regards, (Allan Weiner, Scott Becker, and Larry Will, Sept 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) -- SYSTEM ERROR #34 BANANA IN FLOPPY DRIVE [Larry Will`s tagline] ** U S A. WWCR 5070 off the air when checked at 0200 UT Sun Sept 12 for DXPL; briefly cut on the air at 0209 for a few words, gone again; 0225 carrier back on; joined WOR a couple minutes late at 0231, went off again, 0242 back on and stayed for rest of show. Guess they were working on that transmitter as the others were on as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5070 had the harmonic filter rollers jump off track on the coils. Lubricated and put back on track. Will need to get better lubrication next week (George McClintock, CE, WWCR, ibid.) ** U S A. Re: Lubavitcher 1710: off the hook ``Being a suburb of Denver there are many Federal agents on hand in the area. None of them accompanied the FCC staff.`` Interesting. That's not typical FCC practice in an urban setting, at least not in the field offices out east. Must be kinder and gentler pirates out there in your part of the country... s (Scott Fybush, NY, NRC-AM via DXLD) Might it be practice varies with the nature of the pirate, based on intelligence? IMHO pirates indeed come in a wide variety of "safeties". Busting a bunch of college kids playing modern-rock CDs is one thing; busting a right-wing militia political pirate or one of the hard-core rap operations down in Miami is something completely different. Didn't we see a similar problem something like ten years ago, when they caught a shortwave anti-Castro pirate in South Florida, and the local U.S. Attorney refused to prosecute the case? -- (Doug Smith W9WI, ibid.) ** U S A. 2900, WTAB, 0747 11 Sept., canned ID by M between songs sounding like "Good music, good ?? 24 hours a day on AM 1560 WTAB", into "Rainy Night in Georgia". Been hearing this for weeks and finally able to ID. Apparently a spur if indeed on 1560 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Did you get any hint of location (certainly not the song title)? I have a different scenario, after consulting the 2004-2005 NRC AM log, which of course could already be outdated if there have been some recent changes in the past month. WTAB is actually on 1370 in Tabor City, NC, so it seems likely you mis-heard the call letters. What sounds similar, listed on 1560? WPAD, Paducah KY. But 2900 would surely be a second harmonic of 1450. Is there another Paducah station 1450? Yes! WDXR. But WDXR is ESPN sports, while WPAD has nostalgia music, which matches what you heard; so have the two stations exchanged formats? Addresses are different, so it would require further research to find out if they are commonly owned. Another more remote possibility is that the 2900 signal is 1560 plus 1340, but among the several KY stations on 1340 none are in Paducah per se (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Correction to 2900 --- I was planning on doing a little research on the 2900 kHz US signal, but forgot to do so before I sent out the loggings. Instead of WTAB, it should be WPAD from Paducah KY on a fundamental of 1560. Sorry for the mistake. Anyone else hearing this?? I wonder if the engineers know this is getting out on 2900?? 73's (Dave Valko, PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. Dear Amherst Members, Amherst Allies, LPFMers, Various Grassrooters and Other Friends of Media Reform, As you know, S. 2505, the McCain/Leahy/Cantwell bill to repeal the existing channel spacing restrictions on Low Power FM radio stations, has been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee. In the NORMAL course of things, the bill should come to the Senate floor THIS MONTH -- and, if passed by the Senate, will move next to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications & The Internet of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. In order to spur people to write to their Senators AND representatives, in support of enacting this bill WITHOUT any weakening amendments, I have brought my AMENDMENT ONE column "out of retirement", temporarily, for a "Special Edition" on S. 2505. This is a one-shot deal, rather than a re-start of the column. JOHN ANDERSON plans to run this article on http://www.diymedia.net -- and I have invited a few others to run it on their own Web Sites as well. Now I am sharing the same article with all of you. Please feel free to read it, act on it, re-publish it yourself and/or pass it along. The more people who send E-Mails or Faxes to their Senators AND Representatives, in support of enacting the McCain/Leahy/Cantwell bill WITHOUT weakening amendments, the better off we will be!! VICTORY FOR REFORM!!!! Yours, (Don Schellhardt, OUTGOING President of THE AMHERST ALLIANCE, via DXLD) Unfortunately attachment garbled (gh) ** U S A. LPFM on NBC-TV --- A documentary called "LPFM: The People's Choice" is scheduled for NBC-TV Sunday September 26 produced by the United Church of Christ Office of Communications which coincidentally is currently sponsoring a new bill in Congress to license thousands of additional new LPM stations. Previews of the program report it is "very one sided" and "ignores the interference issues." Happy viewing. (Bob Cooper in NZ, Sept 9, WTFDA via DXLD) Absolutely will be biased. And so is the title. Only a very small number of people listen to LPFM, or know it exists or even care. And even fewer of them have any interest in dotting some local blank spaces in the dial with still more religious-based radio. The real reason many smaller churches and religious groups can't get on the air otherwise is because their bigger brothers have already cluttered up the remaining frequencies with out-of-area translators (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. AIR AMERICA COMING TO ATLANTA --- By Rodney Ho | Friday, September 10, 2004, 08:39 PM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution For those of you waiting for Air America on an Atlanta radio station, it will debut sometime next week (the earliest being Sept. 15) on 1690/WSWK on the AM dial, according to Atlanta-based Air America president Jon Sinton. The call letters will change eventually to WWAA- AM (Radio Talk, Access Atlanta, via Artie Bigley DXLD) Air America to debut this week in Atlanta on expanded band 1690. Calls to be changed to WWAA. This is the station that moved to Avondale Estates near Decatur, from Adel. It has been silent this past week. before that, automated Country oldies with no spots. It is diplexer into one of the three towers used for the WATB 1420 DA array. It's the usual 10/1 KW non-DA, but even with de-tuning of the other two towers, their might be a slight alteration in a circular radiation pattern. WATB shoots almost due west on 1420 (Brock Whaley, GA, Sept 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Waves (Air America) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3763-2004Sep7.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. WMKI Boston MA 1260 now running IBOC --- Here in Hingham MA about 10 miles or south of their transmitter I can barely hear WARE (1250) thru the IBOC hash (noise) using the Quantum Pro Loop. WTSN is with a much better signal or 1270. Both are not audible using the longwire or MFJ 1024 with the 12 ft whip. 1240 and 1280 seem unaffected with IBOC offering. Glad the kiddies can now enjoy Digital Radio :) (Keith McGinnis, Hingham MA, Drake R8A, Sept 11, WTFDA via DXLD) R. Disney WMKI-1260 Boston turned on IBOC today. Makes an audible hiss against my near-local WOON-1240. Oddly, the lower sideband of 1270 is less affected than the upper. Same sort of deal on 1250. Lower sideband is noisier than upper. Looks like this has a fair bit of filtering to keep stuff out of the 0-10kHz analog passband. Local WRNI-1290 seems unaffected. It will be interesting to see how this affects WARE-1250 and WTSN-1270. WMKI is 5 kw non-d days (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, Sept 11, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. On CBS Sunday Morning Sept 12, just before the much-too- brief nature segment of male elks trumpeting, Charles Osgood mentioned that from now on the show would be at 9:30 am [PDT] on UPN Bay Area [channel???] regardless of silly ballgames, and also at its usual time on KPIX-5, whenever that is (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. One more DTV comment --- More than one contributor to the lively discussion about DTV said something to the effect that for cable and satellite subscribers, the transition would be "seamless." I'm not sure that's the case. Most cable subscribers (myself included) have basic NTSC analog- delivered cable. My understanding is that cable systems may not "degrade" the signal of a broadcast station. So, would converting the DTV signals to analog NTSC after the transition qualify as "degradation?" A lot of broadcasters would say "yes" -- the signal must be delivered to the subscriber as a digital signal, and in HDTV if that is the broadcast format of the signal. And that means that analog cable subscribers will be forced to go digital, buy a DTV- capable set, and pay more per month to rent a digital box from their local cable company. Viewers would find the onus on them to get some sort of after-market downconverter if they wished to continue using their analog sets, and I can envision some sort of encoding that would prevent this from being done. VCRs and current DVD recorders would be obsolete, and if Congress has its way, a broadcast flag will prevent material recorded on a DVR or other device from being copied. So, no way to make backup copies of those shows you've recorded, nor to make copies to share with friends (perfectly legal under current law as long as no money is changing hands). They are still working to plug the "analog hole" in such devices and, believe me, if there is a way to do it, they will do it. So, I don't see the "seamlessness" of this for cable folks. Their analog TVs, cable boxes, VCRs, and DVD recorders will all be useless (Stan Jones, Orlando FL, Sept 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. 5000, YVTO, 0919 12 Sept., Usual ticks, observatory QTH and time announcement by M. Ticks were about 4/10ths of a second slower than WWV. Strong signal and slightly better than WWV. The upper sideband of YVTO seemed twice as modulated as the lower. WWVH also in there (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD- 535D, ANT: Beverage of 300' at 175 degrees, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Checked Sunday morning Sept 12 for ``Aló Presidente`` from RNV via Cuba. At 1405 on 15230 heard the show briefly mentioned, then dead air. Switched to 11875, which had a good signal, and RNV programming leading up to AP: 1413 plug http://www.rnv.gov.ve and rnv@rnv.gov.ve and at 1414 introducing the prez`s show. Not found on any other frequencies; if on 17750, that was totally blocked by reactivated WYFR. 15230 continued to broadcast open carrier. BTW, on its website RHC does admit to broadcasting this relay from Venezuela, but not to the daily one-hour shows in the afternoons. Indeed another one reactivated is 2300 on 11760, checked Sept 12 at 2340 and heard extremely echoey off-mike event from some cavernous room, later RNV ID and 2357 open carrier; none of this on 9820 --- or 13680, fortunately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA En el programa Amigos de la Onda Corta de REE, se dijo lo siguiente: "Ya que estamos señalando una programación especifica, diremos que Aló Presidente a cargo de Hugo Chávez, se puede escuchar los Domingos de 14 a 18 horas por las siguientes frecuencias: 11670, 11875, 13680, 13750 y 17750 kHz. Quienes quieran alguna información mayor sobre estas emisiones o deseen ponerse en contacto con RHC por otro motivo pueden dirigirse por correo postal al apartado 6240 La Habana Cuba" Bueno Glenn, recibe un fuerte abrazo y seguimos en contacto, recuerda que tus informaciones forman parte esencial de Sintonía DX. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) En el noticiario después de Sintonía DX, hubo algo acerca de planes (o no) para el programa Aló Presidente, pero no entendí bien. ¿Sabes qué dijeron al respecto? (Glenn to José Elías, via DXLD) Creo que estaban diciendo que el programa saldría hoy sin problemas de ninguna clase, ya que la semana pasada por problemas técnicos el mismo no pudo salir al aire; de allí que se tejieron una serie de versiones, donde la que se propagó fué que motivado a la poca asistencia de personas y al abucheo de otras, no se quedaron para hacer el programa desde Petare. Ojo Glenn, esto no lo digo yo, lo dijeron a través de diferentes medios que son opuestos al gobierno. En cambio, en los medios que apoyan a Chávez se habló de fallas técnicas. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Recientemente me han llegado devueltas y sin abrir varias cartas que envié a las emisoras que indico en el Asunto. Las direcciones fueron: Radio Nacional de Venezuela, Apartado postal 3979, Caracas, Venezuela Deseo que me indiquéis otras direcciones de estas emisoras en las cuales tengáis constancia de que han recibido vuestras cartas. O en su defecto otra dirección alternativa. En la lista de direcciones postales de AER, aparecen indicadas direcciones distintas para ambas emisoras. Si no recibo ninguna indicación al respecto por vuestra parte, enviaré los informes de recepción a estas otras direcciones. Gracias y un saludo (Jesús María Iglesias, EA1-0986, Asturias, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) Les mandé los informes devueltos y siguen sin contestar, pero por lo menos no los devuelven, aqui te los mando: Final Calle Las Marías, entre Chapellín y Country Club. La Florida. Caracas, Distrito Capital. Venezuela. Zona Postal 1050. SALUDOS DE TU COLEGA (JOSE HERNANDEZ MADRID, ibid.) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ALGERIA. 7459.97, R. Nac. Saharahui (presumed), 0628, 11 Sept; 20/S9 signal in the clear with Arabic talk and Horn of Africa music (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, 41.64N 93.66, R8B, R7, HF-2050, 6790/GM, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MUSEA +++++ VIDEO OF BEN DANGERFIELD'S TALK AT NRC 2004 http://www.nrcdxas.org/wnrc/2004/2004NRC-ben.rm This file is in Real Media v9. No RAM file. Ben Dangerfield, who was in WW-II, talked about how DXing was during the war. If you have not heard this talk, you're missing a piece of history. Thanks, Ben, for telling your story at the 2004 convention! I should be able to put this on a VHS or DVD if someone wants it (Fred Vobbe, NRC-AM via DXLD) I would be interested (either format, DVD preferred). Tried to download it but with dialup, a 49 MB download simply isn't going to happen... (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) I echo Fred's feelings on this one. As a student of radio history, talks like Ben gave are priceless resources for radio enthusiasts of the future. Such oral histories should be preserved (Dave Marthouse, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ LEONARD KAHN VS. TOM RAY I find Ray's statements highly offensive, and some of his engineering statements based on biased BS. We've all debated the IBOC battle, and there is one thing that nobody can dispute. It causes interference. The question in my mind is, what is "acceptable interference". "Acceptable" is the word that needs to be defined. In my book, acceptable means not equal to or more than the present level, and without causing a hardship on others that has been experienced in the past. For example, if I can't get the weather report from WGN that I have received for the past 40 years, that is not acceptable. To me, Kahn is right in this one. Dare I say that Tom Ray is the Michael Moore of engineering? I also have to question Radio World's judgement in running that hit piece. Had anyone else written it, I honestly believe it would have never run. Shame on you, Paul! First rule of politics, Barry, is if you cannot defend your potions [sic] with solid fact, cloud the issues with obscured statements and insignificant statements to force your opponent away from the key issue. In other words, if you argue that 2 times 2 is 6, and you're not winning, attack your debater with the fact that they use bad grammar in their postings. Then again, what do I know? I'm just one of the many ignorant, self-serving DXers that don't know anything about how a radio signal works. |grin| (Fred Vobbe, WLIO-TV, OH, NRC-AM via DXLD) Tom Ray may be a good engineer - that had been his rep prior to IBOC. But at this point he has mopved into the political arena where he is clearly out of his league. The possibility that WOR's digital signal could be listenable with quality in Philadelphia (or even close to it) while WLW was running IBOC is not reasonable -- unless of course you're using extreme high end equipment and maybe parked on the side of a hill facing WOR. At this point what we're dealing with as nothing more or less than shilling for Ibiquity (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) DMC Xclef 500 mini-review 12 September 2004: Went to the QTH I was at last weekend. After focusing on Europirates, I stayed out for general DX well past sunrise!! Conditions were about "normal", but I wanted to see how the new DMC Xclef 500 portable hard drive recorder would fare. I used the same antenna throughout and changed its direction 3 times. It was a pleasure watching a flock of about a dozen Geese feeding with the Sun rising while listening to R. East Sepik!! Solar Indices: Solar Flux = missed it, A Index = 2, and K Index = 0; WX: Partly cloudy. Calm. 58 degrees (14 C.). Records as MP3 files. It worked fine, but unfortunately it was generating 3 different types of noise. In areas where the noise floor would ordinarily be nil, you could hear the recorder static-like noise. It is slight, but you could hear it on different parts of the band. There was also some stronger buzzing and ute-like noises taking up a few khz in places, such as 3307 and 6063. I suppose it would be fine for program recording, but not for trying to record weak signals not moving the S meter. The jog buttons are very flimsy and actually "float". They feel like they could malfunction at any moment. It`s a basic recorder with no date or text stamping, no track marking, and no start timer. The manual is very weak, being redundant and simplistic in some areas while not even explaining some operations. The troubleshooting section only covers 4 situations!! The nice features are that battery operation is 20 hours. Being a hard drive, you can connect it to your computer and manipulate the files as you typically would. Downloads are pretty fast with the USB connection (It took 7 minutes to download the entire 6 hour and 20 minute micro-DXpedition). If they could eliminate the noise and add features found on other recorders (like MDs), it would be worth every penny (Dave Valko, reclaimed stripmine DXpedition near Dunlo PA, NRD-535D; ANT: Beverage of 300' at 40 degrees, changed to 175 degrees at 0715, and changed again to 320 degrees at 1045 UT, Cumbre DX via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ FCC KIDS` ZONE Hee hee... pre-election good time phoney baloney feel good legislation, Russ. As soon as the president is announced, the present FCC will be back to the same old tricks modified only by what agenda Kerry might bring in if he gets elected. If Bush is elected, then it will be IBOC, BPL, and more consolidation. (Look for radio/ TV/ Newspaper groups to gain strength). If David Cobb (Green Party nominee) is elected, all radio stations will transition to NPR by 2006, and as part of Children's programming all TV stations must carry 2 hours of Blues Clues and Barney daily. ||humor mode /off|| (Fred Vobbe, NRC-AM via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Europe's In Again Tonight --- 2000 [EDT] Just a few signals noted. Spain is there on 774 and 855, but Norway is great again tonight on 1314 with an S7 signal and clear audio (music). At 2000 four notes followed by talking. Don't need headphones tonight either (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, 0002 UT Sept 13, The WTFDA AM Radio DX List via DXLD) ###